Jmare007

The fact they did a more strike based match was for the better. If they decided to focus on a body part and started doing holds and shit, more people would've been frustrated that initial work was mostly meaningless (it's one of my main issues with a lot of New Japan's more tauted matches) because they for sure were gonna have the same match they did after the commercial break, as that was what that crowd was expecting and wanted to see. Hell, Danielson DID work the arm for a little bit at the start but it was quickly dropped once Kenny was back on top, after that it was solely strikes and big moves. Which as MoS and El-P said, it's basically what most of the Japanese heavyweight style is about. That's been the case for a hell of a lot longer than mid 2010's though. @Jimmy Redman the wrestling holds weren't there so you are not gonna get a "good" answer to that question. The style of the match they had was exactly what people wanted and it was actually a lot more restrained than what they'll most likely do in the future. As El-P said, Danielson wants to have these types of matches with certain people (with others, it will be almost solely mat work and strikes, like his matches with Gulak) and Omega is better suited for this style too. I'm on the opposite end of @Mad Dog. I was really impressed at how Kenny paced himself here, he showed the type of restraint I wasn't expecting from him and most importsntñy, he kept me engaged when things were really slow, I think that's a first for me. I usually an bored to tears with him in control and the first half of his matches.

Tonykism?

No giant can topple the power of thigh slapping!

Is Rick Knox the Bucks official referee? Feuding in Reseda sure paid off for dude.

I meant drawing wise.

Yup, 1.2k people for A Block (Ishii-Ibushi & Shingo-ZSJ) and 800 people for Okada-EVIL. The card for the first night at Budokan looks fucking rough too. How much are they limiting attendance though? not sure how many people they'll be able to fill in for the final day either, that's gonna be the real test tbh.

I thought Omega/Danielson was fucking great. Surprised is getting THAT much praise here though, I don't think it's as good as a bunch of his WWE matches but to each their own I guess.

Well Dave broke his system years ago so a 5 star in 2021 is not the same as it was five or six years ago. Basically he gave Dragon a other 4 1/2*match In all seriousness, it's the nth example as to why no one should take ratings that serously. It's one person's personal taste, take it or leave it. He definitely does. He said in an interview he wants to do it in England. I wonder where they could have that match because it sounds like Dragon wants to be the asshole heel and that's his best versión as a wresler. The most funny part though is that he explained he wanted the match because ZSJ has won so many "Bryan Danielson Award" while AmDrag has been an active wresler

You gotta get out of your head that Kota would've stayed put in WWE if he would've been signed (let alone wasted). Motherfucker would've showed up in GLEAT show in Japan in front of 100 people doing phoenix splashes to dolls on a weekend he wasn't working because he was bored and missed Japan

Yeah, add me to the group impressed with Omega during this. One of my biggest gripes with him (in Japan, barely seen much of him in AEW) has been his tendency for excess and quick spurts of offense that up the pace in a way that doesn't feel earned —sometimes it works for me, like the Osaka match against Ishii, most of the times, it doesn't land with me as with others—, but in this match he picked his sports almost perfectly and was really fucking good in the first half when they did very little, I did not expect to be as engaged with him in a setting like this one and was gladly surprised. I don't really care about his mannerism or facial expressions so him being way more controlled than other times was whatever. Dragon doing a best of his career with a mix of his pre-WWE self and his WWE work was a great ride. Agree with @Makai Club #1 that the my turn/your turn stuff was the least compelling part, but that's what the AEW audience reacts to the most and it made sense to have in this match. Kenny basically no selling the reverserana out of the OWA and getting kicked in the head "clean" for a second time was kinda weird compared to everything else they did during the match., but regardless, this was fucking awesome and basically perfect for what was supposed to be. I'm very interested in how much excess their later matches will have. Danielson showed to be very restrained in WWE and I wonder if he's gonna keep it that way to be more unique than most of AEW's roster or if he'll indulge and go all out. I'm guessing it will depend on who he's working against.

One thing that has kind of surprised me in the last 4 weeks I've been watching AEW shows is that Jim Ross has been pretty damn good. Not sure if he got better with the new signings but I remember reading a lot of criticism of his work and I didn't notice nothing particularly bad. In fact he's sounded more motivated than when he worked play by play for New Japan and his last WWE stint. Tony's the best of the three though, and I say that as a Excalibur stan.

Btw @KawadaSmile do you guys have the channel "Space" in Brasil? I know it's an argentinian channel but we get it here in Chile and they air Dynamite live latino commentary is sadly really fucking bad (not that it makes much of a difference to you lol) but you can just use the SAP option and get Excalibur, Tony and J.R.

That was fun as all hell.

yo, Sting looks and moves 10 years longer, wtf. Tony found the fountain of youth?? This is shit blowing my mind.

I'm glad Black won but I think the feud is all over the place. From beating so bad he's gone for weeks to a bizarre ending were he has to cheat to win? it didn't feel Cody was that much better to get that desperate and the Arn stuff I guess was there for a future break up because Cody is worried about the wrong stuff?

LMAO this is great.

Cody's entrance is gonna fuck up the main event's time. Truly some Triple H shit right there

Fastest 30 minutes I've seen, what a match!

Great way to no cut the match short, lol.

LMAO MJF is awesome

He knows fans are gonna do it anyway, I'm sure he's also excited to come up with something new for the AEW fans to chant for him...he also REALLY wants the "you're gonna get your fucking head kicked in" chant back. If there's one crowd that might do it, it's NY Regarding tonight's show. It looks like 2 hours of non stop, balls to the wall wrestling and I'm pretty excited about it. Can't really remember the last time that happened to me for a wrestling TV show as a whole and not just particular segments or matches. Now, I've noticed AEW has a unforgiving pace in terms of presentation, they let almost nothing breathe. Tonight might take the cake with 5 big matches for just 2 hours. Aderall Tony gonna go nuts tonight, lol.

I hope he gets the Kurt Angle treatment. And if Steveson is also a natural, make it a generational rivalry. But it's WWE so both of them could get the rocket push and then be victims of 50/50 booking before the reach 25 years old.

I remember that, but it seems they grew much closer since his retirement in 15' and his eventual comeback. The Vince stories and bizarre conversations Danielson probably has are probably a gold mine of funny content.

@MoS Ahh, that makes more sense.

The love he has for Vince is the most amusing part to me. What kind of conversations would those two have?